1. Field of the Invention
The invention is a process and an apparatus for testing stabilizers.
For developing vehicle stabilizers and also for the final inspection of standard parts in the manufacture or inspection departments, vehicle stabilizers must be dynamically tested under stress conditions approximate to those in use. This means, in particular, that the stabilizers are exposed to an endurance test for as many as 1,000,000 stress cycles.
2. Related Art
The known testing stands for stabilizers comprise eccentric drives to introduce the test stress either in opposite directions to both legs of the stabilizer or to one leg with firm clamping of the opposite leg. This kind of testing device has the disadvantage that the testing frequency can hardly exceed 5 Hz, since the forces of mass that cannot be compensated lead to extreme vibration of the testing stand, of the floor, etc. The low frequency of the cycling of the load leads to an extremely long duration of the test on the individual part (about 50 hours for 1,000,000 cycles of the load at 5 Hz cycling of the load frequency). The long test time makes the development of stabilizers difficult, and unacceptably delays results of random testing of production parts. Another problem of the eccentric drive is that only oscillation tests with constant amplitudes can be carried out in such test stands.
Servo-hydraulic test systems are known for obtaining stress profiles closer to in use profiles in which a plurality of different amplitudes are applied to the part. These testing systems are not only extremely expensive to manufacture but also cause vibrations on the adjustment location due to forces of gravity that cannot be compensated and are very costly to operate.